1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to the field of stents and stent grafts, and more particularly, to a stent/graft device and method for open surgical, or “intraoperative”, placement in a body vessel of a patient.
2. Background Information
Emergency physicians frequently encounter patients having traumatic injury to a body vessel. Significant damage to a body vessel, such as a blood vessel, may expose a patient to deleterious conditions such as the loss of a limb, loss of function of a limb, increased risk of stroke, impairment of neurological functions, and compartment syndrome, among others. Particularly severe cases of vascular injury and blood loss may result in death. Examples of treatments that are commonly performed by emergency physicians to treat vessel injury secondary to trauma include clamping the vessel with a hemostat, use of a balloon tamponade, ligation of the damaged vessel at or near the site of injury, or the insertion of one or more temporary shunts.
In the case of traumatic injury to blood vessels, the use of temporary shunts has been linked to the formation of clots. Shunts are generally placed as a temporary measure to restore blood flow, and to stop excessive blood loss. This may require returning the patient to the operating room for treatment and removal of the clots, often within about 36 to 48 hours of the original repair. When the patient has stabilized (generally a few days later), the shunt is typically removed and replaced with a vascular graft, such as a fabric graft that is sewn into place. Ligation of the damaged vessel may result in muscle necrosis, loss of muscle function, edema, or compartment syndrome with potential limb loss or death.
Due to the nature of the vascular injury that may be encountered, the use of shunts, repairing and/or ligating of a vessel often requires that such treatments be performed at great speed, and with a high degree of physician skill. Such treatments may occupy an undue amount of the time and attention of an emergency physician at a time when other pressing issues regarding the patient's treatment may also require immediate attention. In addition, since the level of particularized skill required may exceed that possessed by the typical emergency physician, particularly traumatic episodes may require the skills of a specially trained physician. Such physicians are specially trained to address the particular trauma, such as a vascular trauma, and to stabilize the patient in the best manner possible under the circumstances of the case.
It would be desirable to provide a system and method for dealing with vascular trauma (arterial and venous) in a manner that is time effective, that addresses the trauma at hand to the extent possible, and that utilizes techniques that may be readily practiced by an emergency physician.